People

Alice’s program of research uses developmental behavior genetics to investigate how psychosocial experiences and genotype contribute to individual differences in cognitive aging and risk of ADRD.  Current projects include: Developmental Mechanisms in Cognitive Aging; Heritability of Cognitive Aging Systematic Review; and Etiology Underlying Life Events and Dementia by Gender.

Alice seeks a varied career involving clinical service, research, mentoring, and teaching.

Please contact Alice via email

Kayla is currently completing a National Research Service Award (NRSA F31) examining the intersection of social determinants of health and genetic contributions to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) risk in Mexican older adults. Her program of research spans chronic illness and cognitive aging in older adults of Latin American origin and other underrepresented populations. Her current projects also include characterizing early clinical markers of cognitive change in adults at risk of autosomal dominant AD, as well as sociocultural influences on neuropsychological assessment and cognitive aging outcomes in underrepresented populations.

Kayla is currently a neuropsychology emphasis student at USC and intends to continue her specialization on internship and complete a neuropsychology-focused postdoc with a long-term goal of board certification. She is interested in a career that offers research, clinical, teaching, and mentoring opportunities aligned with her interests in cognitive aging health equity.

Please contact Kayla via email

Matt’s research explores the intersection between health, health behaviors and cognitive aging from a longitudinal and genetically informed perspective. He uses large publicly available datasets to investigate how genetic and environmental factors influence engagement in healthy behaviors and the effects of these same behaviors on cognitive aging trajectories and dementia risk. Matt’s current areas of research include: 1) Physical Fitness and Dementia Risk, 2) Physical Activity in Parkinson’s Disease, 3) Biopsychosocial Predictors of Health Behaviors.

Matt’s career goals are oriented towards an integrated career in research and clinical practice. He aims to pursue pre-intervention research in an academic medical setting for cognitive aging and neurodegenerative disease populations. Matt also hopes to pursue parallel clinical work in neuropsychology and adhere to a clinical scientist model of practice throughout my career.

Contact Matt via email.

Emily Saldich is a third-year student in the Clinical Science doctoral program at USC. She is interested in studying biopsychosocial risk factors for alcohol-related health problems and harm reduction strategies. Emily is currently working on her Master’s project, which examines how an educational intervention about alcohol-related health risks affects alcohol use trajectories over time in a college student sample.

Contact Emily via email.

Alyssa is interested in intraindividual change in cognitive ability across the lifespan. She uses Item Response Theory to integrate different versions of ability tests measured over 60 years to study these changes. Moreover, Alyssa is interested in the role of genotype (e.g., APOE e4) in explaining differences (or null differences) in people’s nonlinear growth in cognitive ability. Alyssa also is interested in genetic and environmental etiologies underlying risk for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias (ADRD) such as cognitive decline and AD biomarkers. In the future, I intend to continue pursuing ADRD research while mentoring clinical scientists-in-training in my own lab.

Contact Alyssa via email.

Molly is a first-year graduate student in the Clinical Science doctoral program at University of Southern California. Her research currently utilizes epigenetic data to examine the potential biological mechanisms linking romantic relationships with advantageous cognitive and physical health outcomes. More broadly, her research aims to tease apart how relationships––and the absence or loss of them––influence the mind and body. After completing her doctorate, Molly intends to continue conducting research at an academic institution where she can simultaneously contribute to and implement knowledge that improves psychological and physical well-being.

Contact Molly via email.

Nick is a fourth-year undergraduate research assistant who is double majoring in Data Science and a Social Science with an emphasis in Psychology. He is also a first-year Master’s in Applied Data Science student. Nick  (along with Sidney Kalin) is using data from the Louisville Twin Study to study whether depressive symptomatology moderates genetic and environmental variance underlying episodic memory outcomes.

Maria is a fourth-year undergraduate research assistant. She is working on a tau pathology and cognition in autosomal Alzheimer’s disease paper and currently working on an epigenome-wide study of anxiety in the midlife study of the Louisville twins.

Bryce is a fourth-year undergraduate research assistant majoring in Psychology. Currently, he is conducting an Honors Thesis Project on the moderating effect of personality factors on DNA methylation age acceleration using data from the Louisville Twin Study. He is also minoring in Organizational Leadership & Management and Screenwriting.

Sidney is a third-year undergraduate research assistant who is in the Davis School of Gerontology majoring in Human Development and Aging: Health Science. She (along with Nick Barkidjija) is using data from the Louisville Twin Study to study whether depressive symptomatology moderates genetic and environmental variance underlying episodic memory outcomes.

Raymond is a third-year undergraduate research assistant. He is in the Dornsife School of Sciences, majoring in Biochemistry with a minor in Business Finance. Raymond (along with Sara Leong) is working on an epigenome-wide association study of neighborhood safety in the Health and Retirement Study and the Louisville Twin Study.